Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Deliberately Maya looked past him, down the hall, as if fearful of him being stalked. She brought one hand up to her throat. “Those men you said brought this idea to you, they were tempting you, Theo. They’d already been stealing from the organization, and they needed someone they could blame if there was an accounting. They deliberately lured you into their scheme by lying to you and then hooking you into gambling. You know that, right?”
His eyes met hers. “How did you know? About the gambling?”
“My friend does research. That’s her job. I asked her to try to find out who those men were who got you into this mess. I figured if we could find them, you would have names to tell this new leader, but they covered themselves. They hid the money under new identities. Given enough time, I’m sure she can track them, but not under these circumstances.” She dangled the bait, willing him to open the door.
Theo glanced behind him and then at the laptop. “You have no idea the amount of money these shifters are willing to pay for an unmated female.”
“What happens when they find out I’m not available?”
“They won’t. We can ask for half up front, arrange to meet them somewhere and then get out of the area.” Theo sounded not only eager but confident. “If we move constantly, we could run this con several times before we have to shut it down. We could make a fortune.”
“What if I really do go into heat? It could happen, Theo. I don’t want to be with a stranger.”
Theo looked her over. “My leopard would claim yours. He’s never had a mate.”
Wraith would never accept his leopard. The male leopard was weak and sick from all the alcohol and drugs Theo had abused their bodies with. Wraith was in top fighting form. She would never stand for a mate who was less than she was.
“Do you feel as if your leopard is close to rising?”
She had no idea if Theo could hear lies. She could. She didn’t dare speak aloud. She lowered her lashes, looking at the floor as if ashamed. Many females never had their leopards emerge. They were often treated as less than desirable by others. There were less and less shifters as fewer males could find mates.
Maya knew the Amur leopards were close to extinction, but that was because the Amurovs had cruelly and deliberately prevented their leopards from finding their true mates. They often murdered female cubs and always killed the mothers of their children once they gave birth to sons, just to prove their loyalty to the bratva. They were destroying their own species. They knew it, and yet they still continued with their sadistic practices. In her mind, that made them culpable.
“It would be better if she didn’t rise,” Theo assured her.
Even with his assurance, Maya heard the little superior sneer in his voice. Like most shifters, he looked down on any female whose leopard hadn’t emerged. Little did he know that Wraith could run rings around his leopard. She might not have had a heat cycle with Maya before, but they had managed to work together in every other way.
Maya twisted her fingers together to show nervousness. Why didn’t he get a move on? He had to realize they were running out of time. She felt a sense of urgency and wanted to insist he open the door. He was the kind of man who thought every idea was his, but the reason the three Russians had chosen him was because Theo was weak and easily open to suggestion.
Moistening her lips, Maya stepped closer to the door, shaking her arm slightly so a small blade slid into her hand. Her fingers closed around the hilt and she kept the flat blade concealed against her wrist as she willed Theo to take another step toward the door and slide the bolt free.
Her heart jumped. Clenched hard. She swore it skipped a beat. Wraith stilled. Both froze. Theo simply peered down at the screen of his laptop as if mesmerized by the various numbers there.
“The bidding is going strong for you,” he announced.
Theo didn’t sense the men coming up behind him. Five of them. Even if they were entirely silent, which Maya was certain they were, and their energy was nonexistent, surely he had to feel the presence of danger. His leopard had to be that aware. She was locked behind a thick door, and the threat of impending violence hit her so hard she took several steps back into the darker shadows.
As the men came closer, she could tell that the three bringing up the rear were bodyguards. They were definitely from one of the lairs in the Primorye region of Russia. They were Amur shifters, fit, muscles moving subtly beneath their clothing. It was the two men striding toward Theo that set her heart pounding. She’d never seen two men who appeared more like predators.